Foley stays cool, calm and collected between the pipes for Wildcats

BOSTON -- Although he didn't make all that many saves, one of the times he was really tested could have changed the game completely around.

Instead, Wilmington High junior Drew Foley made an incredible stop in the first period and added 14 more saves, helping the Wildcats defeat Franklin, 4-0, to capture the team's second straight Division 2 state championship title before a large crowd at the TD Garden.

For Foley, this is his second playoff shutout and third in his career, while he amazingly improves to 37-7-7 in his two years as a starting goalie. More impressively, he is now 10-0 in playoff games.

He had already proven he's the best goalie to ever come out of WHS, but he continues to prove he's one of the best in the state today. Sunday, he put an exclamation point on that, especially just over six minutes into the game when he completely robbed Franklin's top scorer Aiden Isberg with a glove save moving from his right to his left.

"I saw the puck in Anthony (Castellano's) skates and then it moved over (to Isberg's stick) and I just swiped my glove at it," said Foley. "I really didn't know I had it until I looked at my glove and then I heard the crowd cheering and I just showed them my glove. Yeah, it could have turned the game around so I was glad I saved it."

From the bench where he was watching, Wilmington head coach Steve Scanlon thought his team was down 1-0 early on.

"I thought it was in to be honest with you," said Scanlon.

Advertisement

"Then (Drew) was waving it around like he had it the entire time. That was a big stop, a real big stop. And he's really been a rock for us (these two years). We can have bad periods and bad lulls but he's there to save us. He's a tremendous goalie."

And this tremendous goalie took some wind out of Franklin's sails with that glove stop.

"That was a big save and it absolutely would have changed the game," said Franklin head coach Chris Spillane. "I think we're a much better team when we score goals early and against a team like that you know they are going to get their chances and score their goals so that was a big save. We had an open net and we put it in is glove so good for (Foley)."

That save kept the game scoreless and later on in the period, Foley's teammate, Cody McGowan, scored what turned out to be the game winner.

Wilmington would add three more goals all in the third period, but in the final two periods Foley was tested a few more times and again Franklin came up empty, allowing Foley to remain perfect in two years of state tournament play.

"That's quite an accomplishment," said Scanlon referring to the 10-0 playoff record. "And lucky for us he has plenty left in him and another year with us."

Until then, Drew Foley and the rest of his teammates with revel in their glory of winning a second straight state championship title.

"It's a lot more fun than last year because we wanted to repeat and it's so hard to repeat, but at the same token we got a lot better this year," he said. "There was a lot of pressure on us. It seemed as we continued to get better as the season went on, people expected a lot more from us."

Welcome to your discussion forum: Sign in with a Disqus account or your social networking account for your comment to be posted immediately, provided it meets the guidelines. (READ HOW.)
Comments made here are the sole responsibility of the person posting them; these comments do not reflect the opinion of The Sun. So keep it civil.